Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for a new law to replace the controversial Tal Law, and new provisions that would provide free higher education to those who serve in the IDF. Barak said that the government should extend the Tal Law by one year, as opposed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's proposition to extend it five years, in order to allot a period of time in which to revise the law.

European and Israeli academics experts meet in Jerusalem to devise urban planning that makes cities safer for their inhabitants.

English literacy Institute A.H.A.V.A has launched its seventh annual read-a-thon by inviting local school children to help create what is expected to be the biggest book ever made in Israel. The book, titled "The Giant's Book", about a giant who can't find a book big enough to read, measures almost 2 meters tall, and over 1 meter wide and is being made by school children from over 13 schools in Maaleh Adumim who will be given words to write and design. Children's author and illustrator Netanel Epstein created the front cover for the book.

On the backdrop of recent acts of racism against Israel's Ethiopian community, President Shimon Peres recently visited the Amit Reshit School in Jerusalem, where children of Ethiopian descent have been successfully integrated. There, he was inspired by Rachel, the school choir's lead singer. After hearing eighth grader Rachel sing, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem," Peres returned to the President's Residence overwhelmed. That night, he sat down, put his thoughts in writing and composed a song for her and for the Ethiopian community.

Dozens of activists returned to Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard on Monday night, as a reminder that the social justice they sought in the summer has yet to be satisfied. A few tents were set up at the northern end of the boulevard, alongside some mats, while some activists wore their tents on their bodies so as to avoid having them confiscated by municipality inspectors. The protesters said that their intentions are to show the government that until they are heard, people will continue protesting until it erupts again in the summer.

A 26-year old Israeli activist of Ethiopian origin, Mulet Araro, set out on foot to Jerusalem on Monday morning to protest against racism in Israeli society. Starting out from his home in Kiryat Malachi, Araro, who is a member of an Ethiopian activist group, will take three days to reach Jerusalem, arriving in time for an anti-racism protest which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Hundreds of demonstrators hit the streets of Kiryat Malachi last week, protesting what they call the discrimination of Ethiopian immigrants.

Some 200 women, most of them residents of Beit Shemesh, gathered in the city center on Friday morning to perform a flash mob to the sounds of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now". A small Facebook group started spreading the rumor, and many of the city's residents joined the initiative and even provided financial help. The hope was that a Flash mob was a way to convey a social message -- and when religious and secular women danced together in the center of the city most identified with the exclusion of women, the message hopefully got through.

Häagen-Dazs ice cream in Israel is under threat, and may become a rarity on supermarket shelves. According to a recent kashrut update from the Chief Rabbinate, Häagen-Dazs is not approved by the State Rabbinical Authority, and stores and outlets with kashrut certification that continue to sell the ice cream could lose their kashrut license.

The government is trying to match recently discharged IDF soldiers with industries facing a shortage of Israeli workers. Demobilized soldiers will be able to study Asian cooking this year at the government's expense, as part of an effort to reduce the number of foreign workers employed as cooks in Asian restaurants. The cooking courses are estimated to cost about NIS 4.5 million a year, about NIS 1 million of which will come from the Defense Ministry budget. Some recently demobilized soldiers taking the course may receive aid for housing and living expenses for the first few months.

Cities around the world celebrated with fireworks and parties to ring in the New Year. People in the eastern hemisphere were the first to bring in 2012- Asia, Sydney and Hong Kong set the standard with glittering extravaganzas. The mood was more somber in Tokyo but Dubai led the way in the Middle East and, despite financial crisis, Europe spared no expense on the pyrotechnics. NYC's usual Times Square party featured Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber. Info live would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to our listeners and viewers.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics Israel's population stands at 7.836 million. Jews comprise 75.3 percent of the country's population, with 5.901 million people, with Arab citizens making up another 20.5 percent, or 1.610 million. Another 4.2 percent of Israel's population, some 325,000 people, is comprised by non-Arab Christians and those whom the Interior Ministry doesn't classified by religion. The survey also indicated that 2011 saw a 1.8 percent increase in Israel's population -- 141,000 people -- a rate comparable to the figures of the last decade.

More than 10,000 people demonstrated in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday to protest the exclusion of women as well as violence against girls and women by Haredi extremists. Buses were chartered, using donated funds, to bring participants from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and the Sharon region. The school's arguably most-famous student is Na'ama Margolese, the 8-year-old American immigrant who became a focal point after Channel 2 news broadcast a story Friday night showing her facing a daily gauntlet of abuse from Haredi extremists as she walks to school.

A recent study revealed that Israeli-born children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union are as integrated into Israeli society as those born to Israeli families who have been in the country for multiple generations. According to a study done by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, children of Soviet immigrants are entirely integrated into Israeli society, while Israeli-born children of Ethiopian immigrants still face integration difficulties. The study looked at the percentage of the teenagers that were able to pass every class at their respective school.

Hundreds of Israeli and Jewish academics from various universities around the world attended a first-of-its-kind academic employment fair in Jerusalem aimed at bringing back researchers and scientists to Israel. Most of the participants were Israeli citizens who left the country to study abroad. The conference was also attended by Jewish academics that are exploring the possibility of making aliyah. The conference was initiated by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The Academy of Sciences and Humanities has 2,061 Israelis listed as interested in returning to Israel.

The number of people using Tel Aviv's bicycle rental service is greater than anticipated and the rate of vandalism is much lower than expected, said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai at a press conference on Tuesday, where he pronounced the program, inaugurated seven months ago, a success. Some 13,000 people have purchased an annual subscription to the service, which costs NIS 240 for city residents and NIS 280 for non-residents. Every day, about 5,500 bikes are rented at the city's 141 rental stations, about half of which are in the city center.